I hear what you are saying about some features not being intuitive, but the video that he provides seems to show all the features without nagging you with tooltips and such. You don't even have to read a manual. After watching the video and using the app, I am glad that there aren't tooltips on every feature. They would just get in the way of using the application.
-Marshall -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chris W. Parker Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 9:39 AM To: jQuery Discussion. Subject: Re: [jQuery] MyDayLite (to-do list) release. All files included. Sorry for the long email but I enjoy thinking about and tweaking interfaces to make them easier to use so that's why I seem to just go on and on. If you're not interested in this kind of thing or take offense with constructive criticism then you should probably stop reading now. :) On Wednesday, November 29, 2006 10:37 PM Juha Suni <> said: > I'm answering for Brian since I had pretty much the same questions > when I started testing it. Found the answers and actually the user > interface is really intuitive once you "get" it. I wouldn't call it intuitive. It's not intuitive because the knowledge I have about the interface when I first started using it wasn't enough to actually use it fully. In this case the application should give hints and/or instructions. Having said all that, the interface is definitely cool and I understand it's only at v0.2. I think Brian has made a really slick app so far with some great ideas. > 1. Changing the priority happens by just dragging the item up and > down. Since they are ordered from high to low, the app knows how to > set the new priority according to your drag. An if you drag a low > item to between med and high items, it conveniently just asks you > which one do you want the dragged item to be. When you hover over these links for a sustained amount of time, or if you click and don't move, it'd be good for a popup/tooltip to appear that says, "Drag up or down to change priority." > 2. The whole form doesn't disable. Using the checkboxes you can > select items and then select a new lable for them from the top. When you check a box for the first time it'd be good for a tooltip to appear at the labels dropdown saying, "To change a task's label choose one from the following list." This could use cookies so that it is only shown once per computer/user. > 3. There are small + and - links near the label, these can be used to > create new lables or edit old ones. This one is ok I think. But maybe a tighter visual relationship between the dropdown and the +/- would be helpful. > You can also create a new label > quickly by typing out "MyNewLabelName>", or even create the todo-item > for it at the same time using "MyNewLabelName->MyNewTodoItem". There > is also a shortcut for setting the priority. Just type "med!" and it > will change to medium. This is cool but definitely not intuitive. Again, upon first click in the task box a tooltip can appear that says "This is where new tasks go. To add a new or already existing label, type 'label> task'. To set a tasks priority type 'low!', 'med!', or 'high!'." > 4. This was something I hadn't seen before and really intuitive. You > do it like you would with a pen and paper. Try drawing a line on top > of the item, from left to right. Yes, with your mouse - click'n'drag. > To remove the line do it from right to left. Works amazingly well. Yes this is very cool and a good idea, but definitely not intuitive. When was the last time you performed this action to get the same results in any other program? I don't have any ideas about how to give instructions for this in a slick way but they should be there somewhere. Alternatively: 1. For all these instructions, small boxes that span the width of the application can be placed at either the top or bottom. Each box will be about a specific part of the interface, will be a different color, and have a small x at the top right. They'll all appear the first time the page is loaded and stay present until the user clicks the x on each one of them. 2. A tab can be placed somewhere, probably at the top, that says "How do I use this?". When you hover over it a large tooltip can appear that gives instructions for everything. 2a. Using an accordion animation, a div that has instructions can slide open while pushing the entire app down the page). So that's my .02 on that subject. Again, good work Brian! Chris. _______________________________________________ jQuery mailing list discuss@jquery.com http://jquery.com/discuss/ _______________________________________________ jQuery mailing list discuss@jquery.com http://jquery.com/discuss/
